A COMPARISON OF PROGRAMED AND LECTURE-DISCUSSION METHODS OF TEACHING FARM CREDIT TO HIGH SCHOOL YOUTH AND ADULTS.

VOCATIONAL AGRICULTURE DEPARTMENTS CONSIDERED TO BE REPRESENTATIVE OF DEPARTMENTS HAVING ADULT PROGRAMS IN MARYLAND, DELAWARE, WEST VIRGINIA, PENNSYLVANIA, AND VIRGINIA WERE USED FOR THIS EXPERIMENT. PHASE ONE, IN 1961-62, WAS RANDOMLY ASSIGNED TO USE THE PROGRAMED OR THE LECTURE-DISCUSSION METHOD IN FARM CREDIT CLASSES. IN PHASE TWO (1962-63), BOTH METHODS WERE USED TO TEACH ALTERNATE CLASSES IN EIGHT SCHOOLS. A RANDOM SAMPLE WAS DRAWN FROM EACH SCHOOL FOR TEST COMPARISONS WITH EIGHT STUDENTS EACH FROM AGRICULTURE 9-10, AGRICULTURE 11-12, AND ADULT CLASSES. DATA WERE COLLECTED AND ANALYZED ON THE REMAINING STUDENTS IN EACH CLASSROOM. SOME CONCLUSIONS WERE -- (1) THE LECTURE-DISCUSSION METHOD OF TEACHING RESULTED IN SIGNIFICANTLY GREATER GAINS IN KNOWLEDGE IN PHASE ONE. SOME LECTURE-DISCUSSION TEACHERS USED TWICE AS MUCH CLASS TIME AS DID THE PROGRAMED-INSTRUCTION TEACHER, (2) WHEN THE AMOUNT OF TIME WAS CONTROLLED DURING PHASE TWO OF THE STUDY, THERE WAS NO SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE MEAN SCORES FOR EACH METHOD, (3) TEACHERS FELT THAT PROGRAMED INSTRUCTION SHOULD BE INTEGRATED WITH OTHER METHODS OF TEACHING, AND SOME BELIEVE THAT GOOD STUDENTS LEARNED MORE THAN POOR STUDENTS FROM THIS METHOD. (PS)